The American Newspaper | Page 5

stands with hat in hand has the respect accorded to any other beggar.
The recognition of the fact that the newspaper is a private and purely
business enterprise will help to define the mutual relations of the editor
and the public. His claim upon the public is exactly that of any
manufacturer or dealer. It is that of the man who makes cloth, or the
grocer who opens a shop--neither has a right to complain if the public
does not buy of him. If the buyer does not like a cloth half shoddy, or
coffee half-chicory, he will go elsewhere. If the subscriber does not like
one newspaper, he takes another, or none. The appeal for newspaper
support on the ground that such a journal ought to be sustained by an
enlightened community, or on any other ground than that it is a good
article that people want,--or would want if they knew its value,--is
purely childish in this age of the world. If any person wants to start a
periodical devoted to decorated teapots, with the noble view of
inducing the people to live up to his idea of a teapot, very good; but he
has no right to complain if he fails.
On the other hand, the public has no rights in the newspaper except
what it pays for; even the "old subscriber" has none, except to drop the
paper if it ceases to please him. The notion that the subscriber has a
right to interfere in the conduct of the paper, or the reader to direct its
opinions, is based on a misconception of what the newspaper is. The
claim of the public to have its communications printed in the paper is
equally baseless. Whether they shall be printed or not rests in the
discretion of the editor, having reference to his own private interest,
and to his apprehension of the public good. Nor is he bound to give any
reason for his refusal. It is purely in his discretion whether he will
admit a reply to any thing that has appeared in his columns. No one has
a right to demand it. Courtesy and policy may grant it; but the right to it
does not exist. If any one is injured, he may seek his remedy at law;
and I should like to see the law of libel such and so administered that
any person injured by a libel in the newspaper, as well as by slander out
of it, could be sure of prompt redress. While the subscribes acquires no
right to dictate to the newspaper, we can imagine an extreme case when

he should have his money back which had been paid in advance, if the
newspaper totally changed its character. If he had contracted with a
dealer to supply him with hard coal during the winter, he might have a
remedy if the dealer delivered only charcoal in the coldest weather; and
so if he paid for a Roman Catholic journal which suddenly became an
organ of the spiritists.
The advertiser acquires no more rights in the newspaper than the
subscriber. He is entitled to use the space for which he pays by the
insertion of such material as is approved by the editor. He gains no
interest in any other part of the paper, and has no more claim to any
space in the editorial columns, than any other one of the public. To give
him such space would be unbusiness-like, and the extension of a
preference which would be unjust to the rest of the public. Nothing
more quickly destroys the character of a journal, begets distrust of it,
and so reduces its value, than the well-founded suspicion that its
editorial columns are the property of advertisers. Even a religious
journal will, after a while, be injured by this.
Yet it must be confessed that here is one of the greatest difficulties of
modern journalism. The newspaper must be cheap. It is, considering
the immense cost to produce it, the cheapest product ever offered to
man. Most newspapers cost more than they sell for; they could not live
by subscriptions; for any profits, they certainly depend upon
advertisements. The advertisements depend upon the circulation; the
circulation is likely to dwindle if too much space is occupied by
advertisements, or if it is evident that the paper belongs to its favored
advertisers. The counting-room desires to conciliate the advertisers; the
editor looks to making a paper satisfactory to his readers. Between this
see-saw of the necessary subscriber and the necessary advertiser, a
good many newspapers go down. This difficulty would be measurably
removed by the admission of the truth that the newspaper is a strictly
business enterprise, depending for success upon a 'quid pro quo'
between all parties connected with it, and upon